SiMonica’s Voyage

Apologies again for the lapse in writing.  One of the commodities that we’re noticing a severe price increase from India, among many, is internet.  But I think the real reason for our lack of reporting is the incredible amount of stuff to do in this country that more and more feels like one big national park.  Maya left us on Friday and flew back to Australia from Dunedin, meanwhile we hopped a bus that same day, heading west to the town of Te Anau.  It is a beautiful spot situated on a lake and one of the main jumping off points for visiting the fjord of Milford Sound.  There is a major hiking trail that goes through this area, but doing this requires quite a bit of advanced planning.  We ended up doing a day long sea kayak of the sound which was amazing.  To reach the jumping in point, we were picked up at 6:30 am by our guides and drove about 2 hours. We stopped along the way to take in the vista and our van was rapidly picked apart by these alpine parrots called Kea. These birds are endangered, like most native creatures to New Zealand, and they are highly skilled at eating away at the rubber around the doors of cars. We then drove through a tunnel that took about 12 years to build, and then were suited up and set off in our kayaks. Once Simon became a bit more skilled at keeping us going straight, we were cruising along. A retired Scottish couple put us to shame throughout the day. They were regular kayakers and within two strokes they were way ahead of us. We saw an amazing waterfall, seals and took in the views of the mountains around us. We didn’t make it to the mouth of the Sound at the Tasman Sea as that was about 16 km from us, but we had a great time going around. On the way back to our drop off point, the winds picked up and our guide had us hold our four kayaks together and we fixed a sail to our paddles and sailed back most of the way. By the time we went quite a ways back, the waves had really picked up and we were shown how to surf in the kayaks. Basically you have to set yourself up with the front of the wave and then let it carry you along for as long as you can stay on top. Once we got back on land we decided to follow the example of some others in our group and jump off the pier into the water. I think it’s safe to say that this may have been the coldest water I’ve ever swam in. Simon jumped in too, which is quite a feat.
We stopped a few times on the way back to Te Anau for some scenic photo shoots.

The next day we attempted to hitch a ride to Queenstown, the extreme sport capital of New Zealand. We had heard that hitching was very common and easy, but luck was against us as we picked a very rainy day and only one of the 100+ cars that passed us in an hour stopped. Unfortunately that car was only going 30 minutes down the road, so we had to give up our adventure and get the bus. We tested the waterproofness of our bags, and unfortunately found that they were not very waterproof. Luckily, our clothesline still works so we dried our clothes out in Queenstown. Instead of the usual bungee jump or canyon swing, we tried river boarding. This sport was invented by some Hawaiian guy who tried to body surf down white water rapids. Why use a raft when you can surf right over the waves? It was an incredible experience and luckily we managed to stay afloat and on course with our group. You could really feel the power of this water when it’s hurtling at you. We went down some class 3 and 4 rapids for anyone who’s interested. (Out of a scale of 1 to 6, 1 being calm water and 6 being Niagara falls). We were quite wiped out after this, so instead of doing my intended hike up around the town, we played mini golf and took a nap.

The next day we were up early again for a bus to Fox Glacier. As this was a 7 hour journey and there was only one bus a day, we opted against the risk of hitching. We somehow ended up on a bus that was really a tour bus though, which wasn’t so appreciated at 8 o’clock in the morning. The driver starts talking and explaining stuff, and doesn’t really stop until we arrive. Luckily, I was able to sleep through most of it, and what I heard was interesting. We drove through the Southern Alps and crossed them to get to the West Coast. When we arrived at Fox Glacier we found that the sky diving company that operates in this area wasn’t coming back for the next few days as the forecast was quite bad. I was a bit dissapointed as we were told by a German guy we met in Queenstown that this was the best thing he’d done in New Zealand, but the weather today was terrible (approx. 6″ of rain has already fallen). We hiked up to the Glacier face yesterday afternoon when we arrived and were able to get quite a good look at the whole thing as the skies cleared up and we could see up to the top. Most people take helicopter rides to see the Glaciers, but that was a bit out of our budget. I rationalized the cost of skydiving by having a plane ride and sky dive in one, alas. Today we took care of business which included planning the rest of our time in New Zealand and watching movies at the hostel which amazingly has a “movie theater” (loads of movies on dvd and theater style seating with a big screen tv). We had to plan so much in advance because we’re going to be WWOOFing (volunteering on an organic farm) next week and then spending our last week hiking the Abel Tasman Coastal and Inland tracks. It’ll be a 6 day hike and due to popularity you need book campsites along the trail a ways in advance. It’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful walks in the country so we’re very excited.

Tomorrow we’re off on another 11 hour bus adventure up to Malborough Sound on the northeast tip of the South Island. We’ll be staying at a lodge that is only accessible by boat or on foot!

We hope to post some more photos soon.

We’ve been away from the computer for a while, and we know that you’ve likely missed out on your regular dose of ‘The Adventures of SiMonica.’ Well, wait no more, because here it comes.

We arrived in Melbourne on the 16th of January, checked into our very hip hostel in the St. Kilda inner-city suburb of Melbourne (very fashionable as it turned out) and seeing as we had to wait a few hours to check into our room and get some much-needed sleep, we went for a little walk outside. It was quite early in the morning, so we watched as healthy Melbournians started running along the beach, and checked out a nice pier. The water in Port Philip (where Melbourne is situated) was crystal clear and it was rather shallow. As the day wound on, we went back to the hostel, had some lunch and watched a very intense game of the Australian Open (which is a big deal over here), and then took a long nap. When we awoke around 6 in the evening and stepped outside, it turned out that it was about 40 degrees Celcius and our eyeballs were sweating. Pleasant, of course. We then met up with our Melbourne-based friends, Heath and company, and sat at an open-air bar, drinking Australian beer (they don’t serve Fosters here, anywhere, because it’s a bad beer), and watching a beautiful sunset. Needless to say, we slept like babies that night.

The next day, we met up with Heath, who showed us around central Melbourne, which is blessed with absolutely awesome modern architecture. Skyscrapers and high-rises dot the horizon with funky designs and shapes. They have an environmentally-safe building with it’s own wind-turbines on the roof and wooden slats along the sides that open and close during the day depending on the amount of heat that is needed in the building. Basically, it seems like someone very liberal-minded is approving these projects, which really make the cityscape very fresh and vibrant. All this modernity is skilfully integrated with the old and stately Victorian architecture that was prevalent in the city prior to this modern construction boom. So, we walked around in little lanes and arcades through the city, and simply hung out for the rest of the day.

The next day we left on a two day tour of the Great Ocean Road. This road, which extends along the Southern Ocean (bet you didn’t even know that this ocean exists in the first place) due east of Melbourne, was completed in the early 1930s. It is similar in its spectacular scenery to Highway 1 that runs along the coast of California. It features small towns, beaches with huge waves for surfing, and various rock formations created by an eroding coastline. The most famous of these formations are the Twelve Apostles. These are a group of 70 meter high pieces of coastline that are now standing in the open ocean some 20 meters off the coast. It is a known fact that there are fewer that 12 of these Apostles in reality, and one of them toppled just two years ago. Nonetheless, they were beautiful and we got to swim in a new body of water, despite it being quite chilly.

The two day trip was run by an Australian man who has been doing this for about nine years. Since there were only 6 tourists this time around, he decided to take his daughter and wife along with him. It was interesting to see the conflict of him as a family man and showing off in front of the tourists. The other people on the tour were very nice, and we enjoyed spending time with them.

When we returned to Melbourne on Friday, we checked back into our hostel. The next morning was going to be a very busy, so we went to bed kind of early. We woke up, had a quick breakfast, and moved to a hostel closer to the city and in the part of town called Fitzroy, which was supposedly more hip and edgy. Then we went to the famous Queen Victoria Market, which is known for its fresh produce, including meats and fish as well as all kinds of clothes and tourist knick-knacks. The market was nice, and we purchased some food to have with my older sister Maya who was planning on arriving that same morning. When we finally came back to the hostel, we checked our e-mail and it turned out that due to visa complications/misunderstandings, my sister would be arriving the next morning, and that we now had a free bed in the hostel that was already paid for. (This later led to a huge misunderstanding between us and the hostel staff, but we worked it out.) The weather was rainy that day, so we visited the Ian Potter gallery in downtown, where the highlight of the collection was a display of women’s hats made by a talented milliner from the 1930s to 1970. That evening was spent barhopping with Heath in the Fitzroy neighborhood, and a great time was had by all.

The next morning, Maya did in fact arrive at the hostel, and we went out to celebrate that wonderful Melbourne ritual – the breakfast. Bacon hadn’t tasted this good in a while. The weather was beautiful and we visited the Royal Botanical Gardens where we discovered that swans in Australia are black and observed funny looking birds with huge feet and disproportionately small heads compared to their huge feathery bodies. Then we visited the huge war memorial which is truly monumental. It seemed to glorify war and fighting, which I didn’t agree with, frankly.

Upon arrival, Maya informed us that we have some distant relatives who live in Melbourne, and that she was able to get in touch with them. So, on Monday, the wife of this distant relative from my dad’s side, picked us up from our hostel and showed us around some previously-unexplored parts of Melbourne, and then took us to their house where we had a tasty lunch with her husband. The husband is the grandson of my paternal-grandfather’s uncle. They moved to Melbourne in the late 1970s and told us a lot of interesting things about that side of the family as well as about life in Melbourne when they arrived in the Southern Hemisphere. It turned out that our family had a few opera singers and one famous circus director and a fair share of doctors. Who would have known. It was great to meet them and I wish we had a little more time to spend with them.

After this meeting, Maya purchased tickets to New Zealand, to fly there with us the next day, and we met up with Heath to partake in a food event. The Italian food that we had was excellent and full of fresh and large mussels.

The next morning, we left Australia and flew to the South Island of New Zealand to the city of Dunedin (pronounced Duneidin), which happens to be the second largest city of this island, but only has about 110,000 people living here of whom 20,000 are students at the university. New Zealand is sparsely populated, to say the least. It seemed that all the New Zealanders who were waiting in line to check-in in Melbourne, knew each other. Maybe they were just that friendly.

Today, we moved to a hostel closer to the center of the city, rented a car, and drove around the Otago Peninsula, which juts out from Dunedin. So far, I’d have to say that this little peninsula has presented us with the most spectacular and impressive scenery that we’ve seen during our travels. The clouds are low-hanging and slightly striped. The tide in the sound was very low, with some boats completely laying on their sides, trees, hills full of sheep, hills, the Southern Pacific Ocean, huge sand dunes, and many other things for which we stopped a lot of times to take pictures. We were quite busy today. First we visited a pseudo-botanic garden, where we looked at some local vegetation and flowers. Then we had a tasty lunch in Portobello, and visited a small aquarium which impressed us a lot since we got to watch the feeding of the fish and listen to the fascinating guide. After that, we went to the tip of the peninsula which is a breeding spot for Royal Albatross. At first we decided to pay for an hour-long tour, but then while waiting for the tour to begin, we saw about half dozen albatross hovering majestically in the air above an impressive bluff and decided to get our money back. They were very gracious about this. These birds are truly impressive. Huge wingspan and just hovering in the air, not disturbed by the strong winds that in the meantime batter the other birds in the surrounding areas.

After this, we drove around and ended up at Sandfly Beach. To reach this beach, we had to descend down huge sand-dunes. Once there, we were greeted by huge waves and two huge sea-lions performing a mating dance on the beach. Since sea-lions are kown as ferocious predators, we approached them quietly and then ran past them. At the end of the beach is the star attraction. This happens to be one of the places where a colony of Yellow-Eyed Penguins lives. Since they’re shy and easily scared away, an observation shack has been built on the hillside above the beach where visitors sit and try to spot these small penguins. We saw only one, but it was neat nonetheless.

We enjoyed Melbourne a lot and though it to be quite a nice place to live, if only it was closer. We’re also quite impressed with the natural beauty of New Zealand, having only seen a sliver of it.

After an overnight train to Mumbai, a day of walking around that oh-so-Western Indian city, a death-defying taxi ride to the airport, a flight to Bangkok, many hourst spent in the new and beautiful Bangkok airport, a flight to Singapore, purchasing tasty Chinese pastries at that reknown airport, and a long flight to Melbourne, we finally made it. 

We arrived in Melbourne this morning with high hopes of getting some solid sleep on a soft bed.  But much to our chagrin, this was not to be the case, since this is a more Westernised country than India with rules and procedures, so we had to wait until the early afternoon to check into our room (which did have a wonderfully soft mattress). 

Prior to leaving India, we spent our last two nights at a Marriot resort in Goa, which was a wonderful and different experience.  We enjoyed all the luxuries, and even had a demonstraion of Goan cooking. 

Well, more to come later.  We are going on the Great Ocean Road in a few days for a little sight-seeing. 

We arrived in Goa by train from Hampi.  The train ride took us through the central part of this state, which has some beautiful waterfalls.  While we weren’t sure where exactly we were going when we got on the train, the lateness of the train by 3 hours led to our stay in a small village called Benaulim, only 10 km from where our train stopped.  We had read that the area around this village is relatively quiet, by Goan standards, and popular with middle aged Europeans.  This proved to be true as we were pretty much the youngest people around.  The waves were good on the beach though, and we both tried para-sailing.  After one day at Benaulim beach, we took a bus down to Palolem, which is supposed to be one of Goa’s most beautiful beaches.  It was too crowded for my taste, but I bet it used to be beautiful.  Our first few days in Goa left both of us rather unimpressed.  Luckily, we hopped a bus (actually four different buses) and went north to Anjuna.  Anjuna is famous for it’s Wednesday market and as one of the original places for psychedelic trance.  We knew we were getting close when the local bus was playing trance.  The party scene is big over New Year’s, but by now it’s slowed down.  There are some beachside cafes and bars that blare the trance though, if you’re so inclined.  The beach itself is nice, which great rocks in some parts.  People paraglide off some cliffs at the south end of the beach and it’s quite a sight.  Having come here solely for the Wednesday market we were both pleasantly surprised by the great beach and rather laid back town.  We rented a scooter today and hit the market.  There were vendors from all over, Tibetans with great jewelry and Kashmiris with their ubiquitous pashmina shawls.  We bought some good stuff and shipped it, literally, it will be arriving in the States by ship.  Hopefully it’ll be there by the time we get back.

Tomorrow we’re having a surprising end to our Indian experience with our last two nights in India in the Marriott Goa Resort, courtesy of Heather and RC.  While I’m sure we’ll feel even younger and slightly more out of place there than in Benaulim, we’re both looking forward to some luxury and a soft bed.  Technically, our last night in the country will be on the sleeper train from Goa up to Mumbai, so we won’t really lose touch with the “real” India.

We have one day in Mumbai and then we will be in transit for about 28 hours, flying through Bangkok and Singapore before we arrive in Melbourne on the morning of the 16th. 

If the luxury of the Marriott keeps us from internetting, our next post will be from Oz (a/k/a the land down under)! 

Gokarna was quite a relaxed little place and we were quite lucky in finding a place to stay.  Ravi, the proprietor, was a funny guy and used to run a restaurant, then a hotel, then he moved to another beach, and now he has a 2 hotels and recently started a bakery that supplies the numerous restaurants along the beach.  The baked goods were quite good.

There wasn’t much to do in Gokarna, other than wake up, have breakfast, swim, and play beach volleyball for two hours before sunset.  People seemed to be there for a while, and thus friendships developed.  We got to know the two French women at our hotel and a Swiss couple.  The French women met in Goa, so they decided to travel to Gokarna together.  The older one was from Lille, and was in her early fifties, though since she’s been smoking weed and cigarettes since the age of 14, she looked much older than that.  This was her 7th time in India, and she was a staunch socialist, though she didn’t have to work much in her life.  I think she was well off.  Her younger friend, was from  Nice/Toulouse.  She came to India to study dance, but she screwed up her knee two days before leaving, so she was just enjoying herself for the moment.

One of the days we walked over to the other three beaches that lay to the south of ours.  They were named Om Beach, Half Moon Beach, and Paradise Beach.  From the last beach, we took a boat back to our beach.  We also had an Indian interpretation of Italian pizza (not so bad) and fried calamari (not bad either).

For New Year, we sat on the beach and waited for the clock to strike midnight.  Fireworks were going off from different locations, and some flew in awkward directions.  We spent our time gazing at them and doing our best to avoid being burned by a stray firework.  Indian public safety standards are nonexistent.  It was also confusing for us when the New Year began, since cheering and congratulations started about 2 minutes before my watch struck midnight and the fireworks reserves were nearly exhausted by that time.  Afterwards, we walked by a few bonfires and candle-fires on the beach, and headed to a medium-sized trance party located behind one of the restaurants.  It was not very good except for the amusement of seeing Indian men dancing their hearts away.  We left shortly, walked around, finished our bottle of brandy, and headed for our hotel.  There we talked a little with the older French woman, and went to sleep around 2:30 in the morning.

The next day was sunny again, and we had the best thali in India and played volleyball for the last time.

On the 2nd, we woke up at 7:30 in the morning and headed to town where we caught a bus to the neighboring city of Ankola.  From Ankola we took a 4 hour bus ride to Hubli, which was very uncomfortable, with  people hanging over us and elbows flying into my face.  From Hubli, we took another 4 hour bus to Hospet, and from there we took a short bus ride to Hampi, where we are at the moment.

Hampi was the seat of a great Hindu empire that lasted from the 13th to the 16th centuries.  Hampi, then called Vijayanagara, was the seat of this wealthy empire and thus is endowed with a plethora of well preserved temples and palaces.  It’s all a huge open-air museum, so we rented bikes and rode around the sites today.  Also, the area is surrounded by huge rocks and boulders, which create a neat landscape for the temples. Yesterday we also visited the waterfalls, which are slightly out of town through banana groves.  The waterfalls are not your usual falling type, but rather they break against huge rocks which have now become finely polished and assumed melting forms.  Very fascinating.

On Saturday, we’re going to take a train to Goa where we’ll spend our last week in India.

When we last left our heroes, it was still 2006 and they were in Alleppey hoping to rent a houseboat to float down the backwaters of Kerala. Things didn’t turn out to the way we planned and we had quite an adventure.

In the morning on the 28th, we got up at a relatively early time and headed to the main tourist office to inquire about the availability of houseboats for rent. We were essentially laughed out of the office by the woman behind the desk who informed us that there were no more houseboats until the 10th of January. That’s too bad, we though. However, we were accosted by an man right outside the office who said that if we were looking for a houseboat, he could rent us one for 6000 rupees (about 2x what they cost in the low season, but still manageable), which equals about $150. We asked to see the boat and after inspecting it we were told to report to it by 11:30 in that same morning for a departure at noon. We were overjoyed, of course, since everyone we talked to said that either there were no houseboats to rent or if there were they cost about 10000 rupees a night. So, we had a quick and cheap breakfast and took a rickshaw to the train station in order to purchase our tickets for Gokarna for the next day. After standing in line and being told that there are no tickets for the direct train to Gokarna for the next day, but if we wanted to travel today at 1 P.M., then they were available. No, we didn’t want to travel then, because we were going on a houseboat. Finally, we purchased the tickets we needed, but with a stopover in Mangalore.

We raced to our hotel, packed our bags in 2 minutes, settled our bill, and took a rickshaw to our houseboat on the canal. When we arrived, we were greeted by a different man, whom we hadn’t met before, and said that we’re here to start our boat trip. He slowly looked us over, and said, “This boat has been booked for one month, so you can’t take it. But if you want, it’s free tomorrow.” “What do you mean, it’s booked? Raju said that it’s free when we were here an hour and a half ago?” And so on, until we were forced to admit that we were had.

Well, there was nothing else to do in Alleppey, so we decided to catch the train to Gokarna, which was advertised to us at the train station only half an hour ago. We take another rickshaw to the train station and find out that it is impossible to buy tickets for the reserved class for this train journey since the train has already departed from its initial station. We are told that we can get the 2nd class (unreserved) ticket, board any car, find a seat, and hope that you can upgrade to a higher class on the way. We think this is fine, since we were recently told that there are available seats on this same train. We stand in another line, get 25% of a refund from the previously booked tickets for the next day’s journey, and go to the platform. There, we meed other tourists who are in a similar situation, and are hoping to upgrade.

The train comes, we find a relatively empty compartment, and are joined by a tall french woman from southwestern France. At the beginning, there’s only one person who has a reserved seat in our compartment, so we have high hopes for upgrading and staying in this same car. Finally, when the conductor comes along, we show him our tickets, and he informs us that the train is full and we have to move to the Unreserved Car. We stay put for the moment. A few stations later, a mother and her two sons board and join our compartment. They are heading up to Mumbai and have reserved seats. We think, well, we’ll have to move, but let’s wait for the time being. The family is extremely hospitable and friendly, and defend us from the conductor’s orders of going to the Unreserved Car. After we eat dinner, this nice family says that we’ll figure out something about our sleeping arrangements, and to stay put for the time being. Hours pass by, we talk about all kinds of things. People start eventually falling asleep, but we continue talking. The mother goes to sleep with her younger son on the upper bunk, while her older son and I talk about the American education system, changes in India, travelling, rock n’ roll, and other interesting subjects. Finally, we all pass out. Monica and I end up sleeping on the lower bunk, while the French woman, after trying to fit her long body on half a bunk, finally gives up and makes herself comfortable on the floor of the compartment. The older son, who initially falls asleep sitting up in a crouching position, is finally able to stretch out on the lower bunk.

We leave our compartment at 3:30 in the morning to wait for our stop, which comes an hour later, much to our surprise. The train station where we disembark is quiet and relatively clean, so we retire to the waiting room and I fall asleep among our bags on the floor in the corner while Monica makes herself comfortable on a bench. When the sun rises, we take a rickshaw to the town, then catch a bus to Gokarna. Once there, we walk to the beach, cross over a mountain and finally arrive at Kudli beach. Restaurants with shacks in the back line the beach. We don’t have reservations, so we start going along the beach and asking each establishment if they have rooms. Two of them do, but they are essentially cells in mud huts with no windows and you sleep on the floor. They look like solitary confinement cells except you have the key. While they cost only $1 per night, I think that it’s not worth it, so we push on and finally find a nice house with a deck about 100 meters from the beach through a field of dried-out rice fields (it’s not the season). This is where we spent the rest of the year, and it was quite nice. Shanti – as they say in India. Means something along the lines of pure bliss and relaxation.